Ottawa Homes

Design camp a huge success

14 year old Tamara Micevic works away at painting the walls of their project home during a girls interior design camp at NAIT main campus

Photograph by: Walter Tychnowicz
, Edmonton Journal

Teen Tamara Micevic is planning to do what few adults have the guts to do — paint her room with colour.

The 14-year-old is moving her bedroom to the basement after her dad finishes renovating. She plans on painting the walls purple or dark blue because dark colours in the bedroom help lull you to sleep, she explains. And sleep is important for students to do well in school.

Micevic learned about the colour of darkness recently while taking a weeklong interior design camp at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT).

Each of the 21 girls who attended was given a precut cardboard house to decorate, inside and out, incorporating what she had learned about making buildings beautiful. They also moulded miniature beds, tables and chairs out of clay before painting them to furnish the interiors.

Micevic, who took the camp to help decorate her future bedroom, got an idea of what it would look like by painting the walls of her cardboard model.

Grace Zigart, 13, who lives in an apartment with white walls, got to express her love of pink.

In fact, all of the girls applied bright vibrant colours to their abodes. It's not until kids become adults that they start putting taupy, beige, neutral colours throughout their homes because they're scared of colour, says camp instructor Sinead Cheah, a recent graduate of NAIT's architectural design program, who is about to start studying interior design.

Some people are naturally comfortable painting with bright, vibrant colours and some people just can't visualize how it's going to look, Cheah observes.

"They'll say, 'I really want to do a red room, but I don't know what I'm going to do with it'," so they end up painting it safe, instead of maybe painting one wall red, for starters. Or they pay an interior designer $150 an hour to help them with an edgier look.

"They don't understand that it's not just colour on a wall, it portrays your personality," Cheah says. "And using the same colour throughout is neither fun nor exciting.

"If you go to an artist's house, they're probably going to have colour all over the place," because they're comfortable with colour.

Anna Embury wants to be like that. She likes interior design, but the 13-year-old wants to be a veterinarian someday. "When I have a house, I might take a couple of interior design courses so I can design it myself instead of paying someone to do it. "

Embury is in the process of redesigning her basement bedroom at home. She knows the rule about using dark colours, but sometimes rules need to be broken. "I don't have very much light in my room so I have to leave my hallway light on at night or I can't see anything and end up stubbing my toe. If I use brighter, bolder colours on my wall, it will reflect the light so I can see better," Embury explains. But the room should still be dark enough to get a good night's sleep.

"I've learned that brighter colours are better than light colours because light colours suck all the brightness out of a room."

You don't have to stick to just one bright colour either. Moriah Mc-Neill, 11, suggests using two or three colours that complement each other, like orange, yellow and pink.

If you tend to be excitable or stressed, a calmer background for studying would be better, says Libby Istomina, 13, who suggests painting the walls green. "Avoid red because it creates anger," she advises.

Elizabeth Lizotte, 13, says you want dark or calming colours like blue or green in the bedroom (avoid blue if you're prone to depression). But you can punch it up a little with colourful posters on the wall, floral covers on the bed, accent cushions on a chair, or a lava lamp, adds Saleen Shieji, 12. "Flowers bring out a room, make it alive," she says.

While Tamara Micevic plans out her basement bedroom, her younger sister, Jelena, 11, sits next to her, dreaming about what she'll do when she moves into Tamara's old room. The beige walls will be out, covered with purple paint and splashes of pink, Jelena says.

"I really like bright colours."

Girls in Design Camp Tips

Besides colour decorating advice from the Girls in Design camp, here are some vastu shastra (an ancient Indian science of architecture similar to feng shui) tips for your bedroom and study area:

Sleep and study in a clean, clutterfree environment, which also declutters the mind

Place bed in the southwest section of your bedroom and sleep with your head pointing east or south for peace of mind; your desk meanwhile, should face north or east

Study where there is no TV to distract you or bed to entice you to snooze

Leave some space between the front of your desk or study table and the wall to allow for the unencumbered flow of fresh ideas

Don't study under a ceiling beam, which is supposed to make you feel unnecessary pressure and stress

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